The Fallen Sun
by Poison Ablaze
Summary: The Adepts are in for another fight for the world of Weyard and to stop the abuse of the dangerous alchemy.
1. Prologue

-Prologue-  
  
The sunlight found itself shining down upon the hunched figure with glorifying radiance, giving the crippled figure a edge of intimidation. Perhaps the figure - who had shaped history many times over - deserved it, or perhaps, because of his deeds, didn't need any of it. Give it up, his conscience whispered. _You're too old. You can't do it any more. You've lost you're power. You lost everything._  
  
The man pondered at his age, then realized it didn't matter. He could drink out of the fountain at the base of Mercury, and still his spinal injuries and arched back would not heal. Always the appearance of an old man, although he was not far old past twenty. He had suffered so much in his youth. In his life. For what?  
  
The power to mold history once again, the youth told himself. He had suffered too much to let his genius slip away to something useless such as traveling lands and healing something. No, he was all into politics. He made the leaders think - perhaps not the purest thoughts, but the thoughts turned the leaders around. Most importantly, made them see the truth.  
  
The young man looked up towards the sky, and found he had been thinking into the noon hour. He had a schedule to keep, after all. He grabbed tighter to his walking stick he used as a crutch, a friend, and started heading towards the town of Lunpa.  
  
Vengeance would be sweet. 


	2. Rough Beginnings

Chapter One: _Rough Beginnings_  
  
Garet's fingers clasped the axe in a tightened vice grip as the head of the weapon whizzed through the dry air. A sword caught the axe's path, but to no avail. The axe finished it's path down, crushing itself into the ground. Garet backed away from the axe - if he tried to get it out of the ground, he was a dead man. His opponent had side-stepped, but Garet rested out of his enemy's range, and had enough time to draw the Claymore from his back.  
  
The figure opposite Garet stepped too close. Had misjudged the fighting ability of the redhead. Garet pulled the sword's hilt back to his waist, and lunged at the man, stabbing the sword through his heart. The figure gasped, and then died.  
  
_He should have known better_, Garet thought.  
  
He was back on his way from Imil when the bandit had attacked him. Fool, to think killing him was a one-man job. There needed to be at least ten, Garet sleeping, and with inside help. He had always boasted about it to his friends - Isaac, Ivan, Piers, and Jenna - and they had all agreed. Garet was virtually invincible. With Mars Lighthouse rejuvenated, the power of fire came into his spirit and muscles, enabling him to be stronger than ever. He had trained for the three years since his journey, and his chest bulged underneath his shirts. He didn't even need to rely on Psynergy anymore - he could break a man's back with his fist.  
  
He checked the corpse for something, and all he found was some useless red potions. Well, nothing he had ever seen before. And he wasn't going to try out what they did now. Well, then again, he just might. He went to the back of his wagon, and to the far reaches of the contaminants. Vials...Normal Mercury Water, ah! Garet grabbed the gold stuff off the counter and walked back to the dead man's body. He opened the stopper, and poured the gold water onto the body.  
  
Nothing happened for a bit, until the water started to cackle and fizz. The signs of life returned to the thief, and Garet readied his sword for battle.  
  
The bandit's eyes burst open, and Garet spat out a question at the obviously dazed thief.  
  
"I want answers, thief. Why were you trying to kill me?"  
  
The figure smiled back at him, replying,  
  
"So, you've got Revival potions. So nice of you. All in vain."  
  
The thief grabbed a vial from his garments, popped open the stopper, and drank it empty. Garet stared as the body's skin started to peel away, and the hair atop the head fell to the ground. Already gray. The body twitched, and then fell backwards, bringing it out of the thief's sitting position. When it hit ground, it was already a decomposed skeleton. The bones burst, and all that was left was dust.  
  
So, he was not meant to talk.  
  
Garet got back onto the wagon, and started up the pace to Vale once more, pondering the presence of the assassin.  
  
---  
  
The same had happened to Isaac, too. He had been able to fend the woman off, but before she died, she cried out in pain,  
  
"Remember the Fallen!"  
  
Isaac wondered what this could mean - on his journey throughout the world, he had never heard of any of the Fallen. Maybe he had killed one of them, and now they wanted payment or something odd. Cults were like that, sometimes.  
  
So Laurel said when he asked him. Isaac had been on his way to Kolima Forest when the ninja had attacked him, and he made the most of his journey by speaking to both elder trees. With the lighthouses lit, Tret's Mars power had grown, and the Jupiter heart Laurel carried had risen in strength.  
  
Both elder trees suggested he head for New Vale right away - Laurel mentioned the same attack had apparently happened to Garet, and he was headed for New Vale. Tret boomed that he could beat Garet home - if he trusted the new psynergy transport Tret was working on. Isaac agreed, and soon was standing on one of Tret's fallen leaves. The leaf was almost unrecognizable, as it was crisp with burning along the edges. Isaac wondered if he had made the right choice when he heard Tret booming behind him,  
  
"This might hurt a little. HROOM!"  
  
That was an understatement. 


	3. The Startings of a Prophecy

Chapter Two: _The Startings of a Prophecy_  
  
Mia waited patiently as she saw Garet's wagon truck slowly across the plains outside of Vault. He was a good guy - no one else seemed to care about the supplies Mia needed for the healing she was about to embark on. There weren't enough Mercury Adepts on the planet, and some places didn't even house a Great Healer. If they did, well, Mia would just move on, healing throughout the world.  
  
The wagon finally arrived, and Mia waved to Garet. Brother Garet. She was ashamed of herself for forgetting the Brother. Gar - Brother Garet had recently taken up the life of a Paladin, and was doing quite a good job of it. Mia taught him the necessary healing spells, and he knew enough to find out some others, too, that Mia had never even thought of. His quest to bring light into the world was great, too, but Mia knew the truth. Brother Garet would never bring good and chivalry as long as the others kept taunting him with their stupidity.  
  
Brother Garet smiled back at Mia's wave, and jumped out of the driver's seat. He wandered to the back. Mia followed him, but found out he was doing nothing other than starting to unload the supplies.  
  
"How was your trip, Brother?"  
  
The paladin's eyes seemed to lose energy as Mia called out the last word. Sadness, almost. But only for a moment. In one second he responded.  
  
"Fairly well, Sister, except for the thief. I...I had to kill him."  
  
Mia gasped, and wondered how the Brother could stray from his path so much, after so much work. He could _not_ go around, killing people who wanted some useless coin, in Mia's order. Even if he did kill the thief, he should have revived him from the "endless" slumber. Leave him alone, Brother - no, you are no brother now, you have killed, evil, evil, betrayed me - and lend the man some coin. Leave him, and if you must kill, do it not in my name!  
  
Garet obviously saw the signs.  
  
"Look, Mia, it wasn't what -"  
  
"Don't even bother, _Garet_. You have disgraced me! You didn't even call me my rightful title! You have committed sin - in my name! You, you! Get out of here! Get out!"  
  
She was yelling, now, and Garet saw the signs. He walked away, slower than the norm. _Better have thought about it before you killed_, Mia thought. What a useless -  
  
"_The Fallen shall come,  
  
Slowly, ever slowly  
  
To feast upon the souls  
  
Of the innocent.  
  
Slowly they come,  
  
But events have been set into motion  
  
And already the Fallen's  
  
Evil path begins.  
  
And the seven and the one  
  
that saved the world  
  
Shall be tested  
  
Once more._"  
  
Sometimes this happened to her, this chanting. It was because she was an Oracle - she could partly see the future through her visions. She never remembered the chants, but the visions came clearer than ever. These visions were particularly vivid.  
  
She was on fire, screaming for help. The vision faded, and then another appeared. Menardi was there, with a blue hammer and a weight scale. Alex, a shining halo over his head. Fezhi, only the whites of her eyes showing. Saturos, with people surrounding him in a village square, cheering him on, with a man handing him a gold medal. Babi, smiling as he enjoyed a book. Others, the faces unrecognizable.  
  
She remembered no more as she fell to the ground and blacked out.  
  
---   
  
Isaac's eyes seemed to burn once he got to Old Vale - Tret's method of human transportation wasn't the most pleasant sensation in the world. In fact, the only time Isaac felt worse was when his parents had fought him over the unleashing of alchemy upon the naive world. Ugh, the pain was still vivid when he craned his neck.  
  
_Damn. Maybe it doesn't hurt trees so bad.  
_  
Isaac's thoughts lingered for a moment, then present conditions brought him back to think of the present. Wait - he was in Old Vale, not New Vale. Tret had missed, considerably. Isaac started to limp back to New Vale, by Vault. He stopped when he heard a familiar voice spring from some of the remaining rock surrounding the remnants of Sol Sanctum.  
  
"Hello, Isaac! How was your trip to Kolima? Aren't you a little early?" Garet yelled.  
  
Isaac shouted back, "Other than the thi---"  
  
"You got attacked, too?" Garet asked, suddenly serious.   
  
"Yeah, but it wasn't much of a problem. I think she wanted to die."  
  
"I wish I had it as easy as you."  
  
"Did you kill your attacker?"  
  
"Yeah, then got his healed body with some Water of Life. He wanted to die, too, it seemed. He gulped down a potion, and his entire body turned to dust. Mia..."  
  
He didn't have to finish his sentence. The Slayer had watched the Paladin from afar, before, learning from the teachings of Mia. Isaac had allowed Garet to heal him twice - albeit with some reluctance - and both times he had turned out as good as new. All because of Mia's teachings, and now Garet would learn no more. Isaac knew how much the Oracle hated killing. Disrupted the natural order of life, or something like that. Isaac didn't care - he laughed the whole idea off. Man could not survive without war. Felix understood; his studies of Alchemy revolved around war. Piers said he was left to pick up the "unknown riches of battle left behind", but then again, Piers had turned rather odd since Isaac had saved the world. All the others felt pretty much the same - don't go killing innocents, but don't fret over it when you have to.  
  
"Fuck, Garet. Well, I guess that's a wack-load of education going right down the shitter."  
  
A giggle came from behind another stone, and Isaac turned to face the vocalist.  
  
"He needed it, too, the dumbass!"  
  
Isaac groaned. Jenna? This day was going to be longer than he thought. 


End file.
